ceres & bacchus

Dear Eaters,

This is a blog about food. I am writing it after years of eating, so I have lots of experience. I also love feeding people, which is different from just having an obsession with cooking.

I am a French professor living in the Hudson valley in New York on sabbatical in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My interest in cooking came first from my mother, who always insisted that we sit down together for dinner as a family. I've had no formal training as a cook, but I wouldn't say that I am self taught. I learned the basics at home, mostly from my mother, and also my grandmothers, my aunts and neighbors - the women in my life who made the daily bread and the grand holiday feasts and often even brought home the bacon. I've worked in quite a few restaurants, done some catering and have had some extended stays in France and elsewhere. When I travel, I don't want to go to all of the fanciest restaurants. I try to get invited to people's homes, to go to markets and small shops and ask for recipes or I tiptoe into restaurant kitchens. From meals at my friend's grandparents in Paris to dinner at a stranger's house outside of Tokyo, I almost never say no to an invitation to eat.

The three things that I am most interested in are literature, history and food. I was wondering how to combine them and came up with the idea of sharing my culinary obsession with others who are interested in the same things. It probably also has to do with the fact that Erik is perfectly happy eating the dinner that I am making, but he doesn't want to talk about it endlessly and decided to design this site to give us a common ground. We named it after the Greek goddess of the harvest, Ceres, and Bacchus the god of wine. "Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus is cold." (Terence, Eunuchus, Act IV, line 5) I would love to hear what you have to say. You can write to me at: ceres at ceresandbacchus dot com.